Applicable material:
A variety of materials can be applied to MIM technology, including stainless steel, titanium alloy, low alloy steel, tool steel, nickel base alloy, tungsten alloy, hard alloy, magnetic materials, Kovar alloy and so on.
Material selection:
There are many factors to be taken into account when choosing right material for MIM parts, such as maximun cross section, weight of part (raw material costs), tolerances to be met, type of mechanical stress to be applied, hardness, need of additional machining after sintering, etc.
Stainless Steel are the most important metal produced by MIM today.
Table1 Common MIM materials and Application:
| Material Category | Material Type | Application |
| Fe-based alloys | Fe-2Ni, Fe-8Ni | Various components of automobile and tool instudy |
| Stainless steel | 304, 316L, 17-4PH, 420, 440C | Medical equipment and horologe parts |
| Hard alloy | WC-Co | Various cutter, horologe and wrist watch |
| Ceramic | Al2O3, ZrO2 , SiO2 | IT electronic, daily necessary and horologe |
| Heavy alloy | W-Ni-Fe, W-Ni-Cu, W-Cu | Mikitary industry, communication and daily necessaries |
| Titanium alloy | Ti, Ti-6Al-4V | Components of medical and military |
| Magnetic material | Fe, Fe50Ni, Fe-Si | Various magnetic components, soft magnetic |
| Tool steel | 42CrMo4, M2 | Tools |
| Copper alloy | —— | heat conduction, electric conduction |
Table2 Properties of Typical MIM materials:
| Material | Density | Hardness | Tensile strength | Elongation | |
| g/cm 3 | Rockwell | MPa | % | ||
| Fe-based alloys | MIM-2200 (Sintered) | 7.60 | 45HRB | 290 | 40 |
| MIM-2700 (Sintered) | 7.60 | 69HRB | 440 | 26 | |
| MIM-4605 (Sintered) | 7.60 | 62HRB | 415 | 15 | |
| MIM-4605 (quench/temper) | 7.60 | 48HRC | 1655 | 2 | |
| Stainless steel | MIM – 316L (Sintered) | 7.85 | 67HRB | 520 | 50 |
| MIM- 17-4PH (Sintered) | 7.5 | 27HRC | 900 | 6 | |
| MIM- 17-4PH (Heat Treated) | 7.5 | 40HRC | 1185 | 6 | |
| MIM – 440C (Sintered) | 7.5 | 65HRB | 415 | 25 | |
| Tungsten alloy | 95%W-Ni-Fe | 18.1 | 30 | 960 | 25 |
| 97%W-Ni-Fe | 18.5 | 33 | 940 | 15 | |
| Fine ceramic | Al2O3 | 3.9 | HRA92 | 160 | – |
| ZrO2 | 6.0 | HV1250 | – | – | |